Dominic. I haven't found the picture of you yet, but I'll keep looking. I think you had just come back from a hospital tour, you looked like a a white sheet. Any way If I remember you went to Btn. supply. I came to see you and ask if I wanted a phantom. I said what would I do with one? There was some back and forth and you claimed you had it all figured out. So we came up with small refer. So one day a PC pulls up and ask if Sgt. Kishpaugh is around. Yep I said and the driver dumped off a crate with a small refer in it. I willed it the PLT. when I left.
Category: Vietnam
Wondering If This Is A True Story
I've had a copy of this message for a while and was wondering if this is a true story. You may have seen it already. Pretty spectacular if true.
S/F,
Alex Dimitrew
Dog Patch
My MOS was 6461 Crash Crewmen with MAG 11 in Danang '65-'66 .The call came around evening one night to respond to Dog Patch. A couple of buildings were on fire. While hitting the first building with water about a dozen hookers came running to the truck and starting climbing aboard and yelling F.U. Fire we take care of you. One girl was grabbing L/cpl Crooker by the leg while he was kicking her to let go. Another was coming thru the door on my side while I was spraying water. Our M14s were right there, well I bent down and kicked her out the truck door when she hit the ground and got up she flipped me the bird and cursed… with that, they all ran. Shook my thinking these b-tches only had one thing on there mind and it wasn't about there houses on fire…
Khe Sanh 1964
Here is a picture of myself taken during the period of April-May 1964 while doing my first (6 month at the time) TAD tour in Vietnam. I was with a small 30-man detachment of Marines under the leadership of, then Major Al Gray (future CMC). The picture was taken in the ville of Khe Sanh about four years before Tet of '68.
40 Round Magazine
I saw an AK-47 while in Vietnam and it had a 30 round magazine. So I cut the top and bottom off of a couple of M-14 Magazines and welded them together and made a "40" Round magazine for my M-14. It really didn't work very well when test firing it, several of the last rounds would not chamber with only two springs. So I put "three" springs into the magazine, but then I could only load a little over 30 rounds. There just wasn't enough room for three springs and 40 Full Metal Jacket rounds in that magazine. I sure received some strange looks while walking around with my 40 round magazine.
1st Marine Air Wing
I was assigned to the 1st Marine Air Wing as an Air Traffic Controller (6711 MOS) at Iwakuni Japan in the Spring of 1962 when I was deployed to Southeast Asia. As an E4 Corporal I knew how to prepare and implement controlled airspace charts. My small detachment of men were sent into Soc Trang, South Vietnam to set up controlled air space charts that were subsequently approved and implemented by Saigon for use in controlling the air space around our very primitive air strip outside Soc Trang. We were at an old bombed out air field that was one used by the French, and there were no facilities. 1-2-3 trenches, chow tent, water buffaloes for showers and 26-man tents. The air facility was completely field built and we ferried the South Vietnamese regular army into and back from the front lines nearby. At that time in the war between the South and the Viet-Cong our unit was the very first U.S. Marine presence in that war. This fact is supported by a plaque at the Marine Corp Museum in Quantico, VA.
Accessorizing My Boat
This is the start of my boat with Sgt Grit vinyl stickers. They work and look awesome. So what do you think?
Get your own decal at:
You Choose Marine Vet Vinyl
Auto Decal with Years of Service
I Wandered Around For A While
BOY! Do these photos bring back MEMORIES!
Too bad the few remaining huts have fallen into such disrepair. I went to the USMC Scout Sniper Association reunion a few years ago in San Diego and we as a group attended a recruit graduation. Things have really changed since I went thru MCRD in '64. For one thing, on that grad day the recruits did not march in review like we did back then. They were marched out by platoons, lined up in front of the reviewing stand and just stood there while a Colonel gave a congratulation speech. Then they were dismissed and that was it. (R. Lee Ermey showed up and visited with some of the officers and DIs, then left without even a nod to us).
Walking In The Footprints Of Heroes
In your last newsletter there was a story about Hue City. A couple pics from 1969. Walking in the footprints of Heroes, 1969.
Ken Martin
Cpl USMC
3rd Recon Marines In Vietnam
This widely distributed WANTED POSTER was printed by the North Vietnamese and specifically targets the 3rd Recon Marines in Vietnam. I guess we caused a few too many problems for them and they clearly wanted us eliminated.
The value of piastres varied all over the place, but I have been told that in my day this was about $750 US Dollars. Hell! We were worth more to the NVA than the Marine Corps because my pay as a 2nd Lieutenant, with the combat kicker, was less than $400 a month.